Divinitus's Lord of the Wilds: Kingmaker Campaign

Game Master Divinitus

Oh, hello Jonathan! I had a dream you were in, and it involved a lot of butterflies.

Iavas has now stats and gear, I'll try to fill the fluff a bit more later.

Hm... I don't quite interpret it the way you do. As far as I can tell, it is giving the healer's kit as an example of an object that could be given a masterwork version at the DM's discretion.

Either way, it's a moot point, as I realized that the masterwork tool mentioned in the DM's post was specifically about a profession or perform skill.

Funny, I had that one too. Isn't that odd? And what was with those rats? Good to see you again, and good luck on this recruitment!

Question for writing fluff:

What year will this be taking place? Should I assume the 4710 that the AP assumes?

Huge dot! Fan of Kingmaker, dying to finally get in a group that manages to get out of the first scenes. I'll put something together shortly :D

Hmm hmm...I think I have gotten my idea in place...and so I present to you the crunch for my character

The mounts will not be used in battle, just to get around. One as a pack animal and one as a mode to get around. Pack animal pretty much carries everything but my armor and weapon.

Alright, Arawn's fluff has been updated, he has a new avatar, and is now ready for audit.

Is the recruitment still going on? I was thinking of a very cool little swashbuckler/Magus build that I have been wanting to try out very badly and think it would do over really well.

Definitely still going on, good luck! ^^

Lots of neat characters in contention, huh! Looking forward to see who makes it. *fingers cross*

You know I gotta say, started making the character and went "Holy hell that's a lot of skill points." at 13 (including background), then I slotted them all in and I was feeling right about it and then realized I didn't have Diplomacy....Tried to find stuff to remove and couldn't so I had to go with the extra skill point per level. Just...saddening that I managed to have an issue of....nope need more skill points at that high fricking number.

The exact number of skill points a character needs is always "one more".

It always works that way. I'm actually glad we're using Background Skills, else I'd be 3 short. Instead, it's just 1, and I can rely on Castor for that one. ;)

I dunno. After giving Aris a good chunk of knowledges, spellcraft, and Craft (alchemy), I started really reaching for other choices.

I'm going to be looking at the background for Aris tonight, and any changes there may bring some to the crunch, so I'm not ready for a proper audit quite yet!

Blast, weight was too high, meant 115 for the weight. Rather lithe and gentle in size.

Pretty stiff competition it seems, and recruitment just started. Interested to see what's still to come.

Still seem to be lacking frontliners, Xynen. I haven't seen too many pop up yet (if any at all).

My fighter shaman is focus on fighting at the front, chose the battle spirit for combat related hexes too.

Here's my submission: Gareth is a Fighter/Rogue Hobgoblin and siege engineer, trying to become a famous and heroic Aldori Swordlord! :)

Just as a preliminary toss into the barrel. I present the fluff to go with the crunch from early. Let me know if I have anything you would wish me to improve or go into further detail of. I hope it is at least a good read and a good concept.

Shi'Vatha, I will allow it, as it is an interesting concept. I do have a question though: are you set on playing Unfettered Eidolon as you have it listed or would you like some improvements? I respect your decision to keep it toned down, but I also wouldn't want you to miss out on some cool options.

Imnah The Half Steel, it is not late in the running, as the recruitment was not made more than 48 hours ago.

Fury of the Tempest, as I said, just propose what you want. If I say no, then just pick something else. I am allowing the psychic warrior.

Xynen, actually have homebrewed a feat chain that permanently buffs pets.

The Dragon, yes.

Castor Antares, you can work out the details of the hoprse. So long as it is not a 'special horse', such as one with a template or something, then I leave it to your discretion. Light or heavy, wartrained or not... those are up to you for your horse. Masterwork Healer's Kit is allowed at price. Also, Profession: Medic is a thing, I believe.

Oyzar, Enlightened Paladins are much less 'goody two-shoes' than the other paladin types. I view them like the quintessential kung-fu sensei: wise, contemplative, and light-handed with how they preach their philosophy, but equally ready to crack the heads of those they view as dangerous and irredeemable. Kind of like Splinter from Ninja Turtles, to use a very old-school reference. And yes, I was one of those kids that watched the live action movie of Ninja Turtles multiple times a day when I was a child. I will allow you to reduce scores below 10, to 08, to gain an equivalent number of ability points equal to those sacrificed, but be warned: I expect people to display traits of their low ability scores in the campaign. I once knew a man who played a cleric with an 11 STR, 12 DEX, and 08 CON who drew his character like some beefy villain off of a Dragonball Z episode. It was a truly awkward game where people tried to reconcile his stats with his character concept, especially since he had a point buy to go on. I also had someone play an Orc barbarion with a 6 INT and CHA who spoke like they were at a blacktie-ball up in Manhatten, which also broke the game immersion and made me want to call him out. So just avoid the pitfalls of min-maxing without roleplaying out your low stats somehow. Remember, a 10 in a stat is your average peasant, so if you decide to dip below 10, just keep in mind those implications: you are less ______ than an average farmer or shopkeeper.

Jonathan Haykes, I am fine with firearms, just bear in mind the cost. I will allow you to use combat stamina yourself, though I don't expect everyone to have to learn a new subsystem. Dirty tricks is okay, although some people on the messageboards have been wailing and gnashing their teeth over it like the apocalypse had come or something. I don't see many major issues with it.

Arawn Vasska, you would be right to assume that. It is also Spring of that year, if that helps provide more details.

Vincent Fleming, interesting, as most people overlook pack animals and then get salty about encumbrance. I like that you planned ahead for the days when loot is heavy.

Ioc, recruitment is still open for around a week or so for this campaign, yes.

Gotta think ahead definitely when you are taking Strength as your foil. (To be fair, it wasn't a hard choice for me when I rarely have a character with Strength about 12) But I will admit that I did a small bit of this campaign once before (Literally about 1/2 the first book) so I will do my best to limit my personal knowledge (it's honestly probably all gone, bout two years ago was when I got the chance to) and the one thing I remember is the inordinate amount of fricking travel. But with that comes plenty of down time too

Ha, I did the same thing, actually. Light horse for getting around and a heavy horse pack horse. Great minds think alike, it seems.

HEY, I HAVE A QUESTION! I RECENTLY FINISHED WARLORDS OF DRAENOR AND LOVED THE GARRISON MISSIONS. WOULD PEOPLE LIKE TO SEE GARRISON-ESQUE MISSIONS FOR THE KINGDOM?

Vincent Fleming, in-game knowledge is no big deal. Just keep OOC and IC separate.

Hmm...I too enjoyed some of the Garrison type stuff....what do you mean exactly by Garrison missions. Are you referring to sending out minions of the Realm that we create to fulfill stuff for the kingdom?

Bwahaha...we do think alike but in different ways, I chose the light for pack and the Heavy for my mount. (Mostly cause if I end up in battle on it, I'd love it to be harder to hit.)

Ugh. Garrisons. "Forget playing the game for yourself, HAVE MINIONS PLAY THE GAME FOR YOU! Interacting with other players? Psh. Not in my MMO!"

*ahem*

Anyways. So long as it doesn't detract from the actual game (ie, no taking missions away from the group) I'm fine with it.

Hmm...I don't know if this helps but this particular campaign lends to damn near everyone having a use for the leadership feat. Sending those peons and cohorts out to do thy bidding is not a terrible thing.

No, it's not. I was more commenting on how poorly executed Garrisons in WoW ended up being. Neat concept, but poorly executed.

For Kingmaker, though, I'm not opposed, so long as it doesn't take away from stuff that the party can do, y'know?

Right right, I get you but once you get to like 9th level who wants to deal with the Kobold uprising when you have peons to take care of it is more the kind of thing I mean.

It especially would be quite an insulting idea for the Monarchy and Heroes to go do something their private army could take of. I never see any adventure truly make use of the 50 some odd peons below you with decent representation.

I have no idea what a garrison mission entails, so I'm going to defer to my fellow potential players. I'm not 'against' it from my limited understanding of it, at any rate.

Would it be alright for Castor's horse (a non-combat trained heavy horse, in the end) to begin the campaign knowing her full allotment of 6 tricks?

The tricks I'm planning on the horse knowing are five DC15 tricks and one DC20 tricks, so I think the timeframe involved is somewhat reasonable. (Statistically speaking, the complete routine would require somewhere between six to ten weeks of training, depending on how much trouble the Exclusive trick gives Castor and his horse.)

That's because most of the followers are level 1 and have NPC classes. By the time you're mid level, those minions are USELESS in combat. They're only really good for things like cooking and maintaining gear or a home base of some sort. When it comes to personal armies, though, there are rules for mass combat for that.

I'm inclined to agree with Vincent. I also spent most of my time in wod hanging around my garrison so I'm a bit biased, maybe include it in the kingdom building thread so it doesn't detract from the gameplay one?

Castor Antares, I have no problems with that.

Xynen, that was how I thought to handle the 'kingdom missions' was to handle them in the kingdom-building thread.

Sweet. Thanks.

I'm all for the kingdom missions, if they're handled aside from the game.

Also if we have people with two horses... this is going to be a very equine party, haha.

@GM & Shi'Vatha build

I'm open to other options, although I do want to avoid issues with people thinking it's overpowered. Especially if I get in. :)

I was contemplating purchasing a cart and a pair of mules, though the practicality may be minimal. Would that be weird?

@GM - None of the campaign traits can be used for an Eidelon, as they mostly human or biped specific. Any suggestions? Maybe a campaign trait from another AP that would fit better?

I remember garrison missions, I always thought they were actually pretty well thought out and fun, I would have no problem with there inclusion

It'd be rough honestly to navigate given the Stolen Lands is mostly overgrown forest that I think of so you'd have to leave it behind at times and it may be some time before we would get to territory that you would be able to use it. @ Arisl

Would you allow the Dread Thane Archetypes? I'm thinking of a Dread Thane Skald/Warpriest or something equally fun. And Dwarven.

Splinter eh? That gave me the idea of making my character a gnome... A really fast little master that always hit the right spots, even if he doesn't have the raw strength of some of his pupils he'll still be formidable in combat. I want the possibility of sharing rulership with someone too much to go for that option though, a gnome would make that too awkward. Thanks for such a lengthy answer and sorry for barraging you with questions, but you missed my questions about warlord and deadly agility from path of war. Though seeing that you already allowed Warder I'm guessing that it's ok. I would also like to pick up the trait Practiced Initiator from path of war expanded (basically magical knack for initiator classes allowing me to multiclass it).

@Oyzar: Slashing Grace, Fencing Grace, and Dervish Dance all already exist to add Dex to damage.

@Oyzar: Slashing Grace, Fencing Grace, and Dervish Dance all already exist to add Dex to damage.

I know, but I would like to avoid the silly feat tax of weapon focus if possible. It's already hard enough to support both sides of the gestalt. In fact I'm considering going swashbuckler with my first level in part because it would make feats much easier. Dervish dance would mean waiting until 3rd level to pick it up, but would otherwise be a good option.

Arawn Vasska wrote:

@Oyzar: Slashing Grace, Fencing Grace, and Dervish Dance all already exist to add Dex to damage.

I know, but I would like to avoid the silly feat tax of weapon focus if possible. It's already hard enough to support both sides of the gestalt. In fact I'm considering going swashbuckler with my first level in part because it would make feats much easier. Dervish dance would mean waiting until 3rd level to pick it up, but would otherwise be a good option.

Unchained Rogue would also make a good dip if you're looking for weapon finesse.

I am hoping that most of us are thinking of more a council then a king and friends kind of aspect

I am hoping that most of us are thinking of more a council then a king and friends kind of aspect

I wouldn't want anyone to be excluded from the descision-making of the group, but for roleplaying purposes having a strong leader does make a lot of sense. For quick descisions in a militaristic group (such as an adventuring party), a committee does not work the best. Of course behind the scenes in the discussion thread it might be someone else entierly making the descisions.

GM Lord of the Wilds, I'd like to introduce you to Haaron Kalason, a young paladin of Erastil from Gronzi Forest, who wishes to make the wilds safe from banditry.

Hmm, would you allow bastard for an Aasimar? In general do you prefer the core races over the more exotic ones? Aasimar, especially with scion of humanity are mostly human anyway. Thankfully they changed it so ages are now in line with half-elves rather than half as much as elves. I will probably go human if you prefer to have more "normal" races in the game.

Without Scion of Humanity, you don't qualify for it. With Scion of Humanity, you do.

Shi'Vatha, I can help you come up with a balanced class. Class design is not too hard if you know how to properly balance things. As for your background, follow the advice that I gave upthread: come up with a suitable background concept that links you to the campaign, give it a flavorful trait name and bonus, and submit it on this thread.

Aris'larial Tathmir, that depends on how big the cart is. Are you talking about more a farmer cart or a full-on Varisian caravan-esque carts? If the former, it will be relatively easy early on, as it takes up no more room than the average horse. If the latter, you may want to consider reducing it in size. While the forest IS pretty big, there are a few tight squeeze locations on the map and a few that become a bottleneck with a ten foot wide cart.

JonGarret, I don't see why not.

Oyzar, those are also fine. You will have to take Scion of Humanity to qualify for the Bastard trait, however.

I am hoping that most of us are thinking of more a council then a king and friends kind of aspect

The group could always have one of those Arthurian Camelot/Knights of the Round Table things where, although one person is king, their opinions all carry equal weight and they all consider each other as equals. Hence why the Round Table was round. In the end though, it is up to those selected regarding how the kingdom is run. Although that is perhaps the best option for keeping things cohesive but still presenting a strong leader figure, there are numerous ways to work the rulership angle.

Depending on the people involved, it can be useful to name a king indeed. I remember the first Kingmaker game I was involved in (it didn't last very long, sadly) had discussed kingdom roles, and we'd ended up with something like a King, a High Priest, a High Arcanist, and so on. Specialized roles set on equal ground.